


Memory of a face

by deadly_poison



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Dark Magic, F/M, One Shot, Speculation, pre-series setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 04:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadly_poison/pseuds/deadly_poison
Summary: Callum finds out about something he shouldn't have.[I was rewatching the series and I thought "uh, Viren's very lucky no one has caught onto his disguise for all these years", then a theory popped into my head...]





	Memory of a face

Callum had been living in the castle for a couple of years now, but he still felt like that place was too big for him. The ceiling was too high up and he'd gotten lost several times. That aside, he loved his new home. He loved how full of life and people it was.  
He didn't have many friends in the village he was from, none of his neighbors had kids who were his age or even close to his age.  
Now, he had friends! And they liked to play with him!

Claudia always insisted on playing pretend. Since she'd learned how to read, she'd loved playing out scenes from her books. Callum tried to convince her not to be the villain, but he always gave in in the end, because well, she could make the creepiest voices out of all of them. She had more fun that way, she insisted.  
Soren liked games where you grabbed your opponents and used your strength against them. He loved fighting and 'slaying' things, although the castle staff yelled at him whenever he managed to kill pieces of furniture.  
Callum didn't have a favorite game, he just liked to go along with whatever the older kids picked, variety made his afternoons even more fun. Having friends was nice.  
On this particular day Soren had convinced him to play hide and seek. Claudia hadn't arrived yet and they were still waiting for her in the courtyard, while hoping she was in the right mood for that game.

"Claudia's not coming, Callum. Let's just play." Soren groaned, stomping a foot on the ground, completely not getting why it was so important for him to wait for Claudia. To be fair, Callum himself couldn’t explain why he always wanted to be around her. "We've been waiting for hours! She's probably hiding somewhere with a book," he whined.  
"Ok..." It did sound like something she would do. He did not point out however that it had barely been half an hour.  
"Finally!" Soren smiled. "You count!" he shouted, already running to hide somewhere, not giving him much choice.  
Callum closed his eyes and started to count, when he heard familiar footsteps coming towards him.  
"Claudia! You're here!" He smiled, looking up. "You're still in time to play, I'll just count again, it's no problem for me!"  
He was indeed proud of having gotten the hang of this 'counting' business. He hoped he could still nail it under pressure, because 'thinking about Claudia' was its own special kind of pressure. Claudia definitely did not need to know that thinking about her made his brain stop working, though.  
"Sorry, Callum. I can't play with you this morning," Claudia said, excitedly. "My dad's teaching me magic! Look, I'm even dressed like a mage!" She twirled on one foot to show off her new witch outfit.  
It was a long dress. Like all her other outfits, it was dark-colored. Black had always been her favorite color. It had a big golden M embroidered on the front. It probably stood for 'mage'.  
"Great dress!" blurted out Callum.  
She giggled a thanks, which only made him blush.  
"Hey, are we still playing? I don't hear any numbers" Soren huffed, appearing from behind the chests he no doubt planned to hide in. “Oh, here you are!” he said when he saw his sister. “You’re playing too?”  
Claudia shook her head and told her brother what she’d just told Callum, adding several excided little cries.  
"I don't know why you're so excited. Magic is sooo boring," Soren said, rolling his eyes for dramatic purposes. "And gross," he whispered, staring into the distance. "So. Gross. I hate bugs."  
This only made Callum more curious. Among the weird stuff Ezran liked to show him, there were a lot of bugs he liked. Some of them had so many colors, they looked like they should have been used to make paint. He made a mental note to show them to Soren the next time he acted like a jerk.  
"You think everything is gross," Claudia retorted, sticking her tongue out.  
“I don’t!” Soren huffed. “Some things about magic just bug me.”  
Claudia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, the bugs!”  
The younger kids chuckled while Soren glared at them.  
“Hey… uh… Claudia?” Callum finally asked, “If you’re not here to play, why did you come out here?”  
“Oh, we were out of ink so dad asked me to get some from the storage room on the first floor… Then I saw you outside and came to say hi!”  
A wave of realization hit Claudia’s face.  
“I forgot the ink! Uh, I’d better go now!” she ruffled her brother’s hair and ran off.  
“Have fun being stuck in a dark tower with creepy bugs!” Soren couldn’t resist one last tease. “So, are we playing?” he then asked, facing towards the other boy.  
“Yep!”

And play they did. It was not really a fair game, since Soren could beat Callum to the base almost every time with his speed alone… and, when he didn’t manage to do that, he just grabbed Callum and moved him out of the way.  
This went on until the castle staff called them in because lunch was ready.  
After eating, Callum was really not in the mood to be shoved around. Ezran was sleeping, so he was out of playmates. He retreated to the hallways.  
It took him a while to get to the best ones – the ones with all the paintings and tapestries on the wall – but when he got there it was as spectacular as always.  
He looked up to all the kings and queens that had come before Harrow and his mom.  
Some of them were so real-looking Callum felt like they were actually watching him.  
Most of them portrayed people who looked so much like Harrow, so regal.  
Callum wished there was a way to keep those hallways with him in his bedroom. He never wanted to stop looking at them. He wanted to understand how they were made, so he could make little copies of them and carry them around.  
He was deep in thought where he saw someone shuffle by out of the corner of his eye.

"Claudia! Claudia!” he called out, recognizing his friend.  
She looked around to figure out what was going on.  
“I’m here behind you!”  
“Oh. Hi Callum,” Claudia yawned in his direction.  
“How did it go?” He was excited to find out what magic lessons were like. They must be amazing!  
“Well,” she answered with another yawn. “We didn’t really do much. My dad just went on and on about safety around magical ingredients.”  
Claudia was pretty clumsy. Her dad probably just didn’t want her to destroy his study.  
“Then, we made a little fireball and we lit a candle together. It was pretty cool.”  
Callum had stars in his eyes. He wanted to make a fireball too!  
“Will you show me some magic?" He asked.  
"I just want to show myself some bed,” she rubbed her eyes. “I was going to my room.”  
"But your bed isn’t anywhere near here..." Callum weakly protested.  
The girl yawned again, not caring in the slightest. He noticed she looked a bit sick, even paler than usual. He chose to believe she was just tired. "I can't really show you by myself anyway. My dad says it's too soon to try to do any spell by myself. Where is my bed then?”  
Callum pointed to his left, and with that Claudia set off towards the actual direction of her bedroom.  
She took a few steps before the boy ran after her to make sure she was not going to get lost again.  
She fell asleep as soon as she hit the covers. Callum then quietly left and went to play with little Ezran, who was awake after his afternoon nap, until it was time for them both to eat.

Just after eating dinner, Callum took a deep breath and knocked on Harrow’s bedroom door.  
"Oh, hi! Did you have a good day today, Callum?" the King asked, his face relaxing a bit as soon as he saw it was him. His kingly duties exhausted him, Callum knew because sometimes he fell asleep while they played. The man put down the papers he was reading and turned towards him.  
Callum nodded excitedly while he told him all about his day and his newfound passion for magic.  
Harrow’s face darkened, but he still smiled at him a bit, gently pushing him to continue. Callum ensured he had his full attention for the highlight of his little speech. Then he went for it.  
“Sooo… since Claudia is almost the same age as me, and she’s learning magic and she says it’s fun… can I learn magic too?”  
"No, Callum," Harrow said.  
"But... just the other day, you said that learning is good, and that I should start learning what a prince does soon and that I could read all the books in the library if I wanted to!"  
Harrow pinched the bridge of his nose. "Exactly. So learn something else, and not Dark Magic."  
“But Claudia is-”  
"Claudia is not my daughter! I would tell her the same thing I’m telling you if she were! Your mother would never have allowed you to learn such an abominable practice!" the King shouted, cutting him off.  
Callum shut up immediately. Harrow never talked about mom and he never, ever yelled at him. If he was doing it now, it must be a very serious thing.  
The child stepped back from him, eyes downcast. Harrow walked towards him, shame filling his face.  
"I'm really sorry for snapping like this," Harrow sighed, placing a hand on Callum's shoulder. "I shouldn't act like a jerkface. I owe you a dance."  
Callum nodded, returning his step-father's timid smile.  
"It's just. Dark Magic already took Sarai away from us. I don't want you anywhere near it. I don't want to lose anyone else."  
Callum agreed. He didn't want to learn magic anymore, not if it made Harrow so sad. He was about to cry... Callum didn't want to make the king cry.  
“Good. Then this discussion is over.”

Callum was forbidden from ever learning magic. Worse, he'd just made King Harrow almost cry. He would've felt terribly guilty if he'd tried to disobey.  
Callum was still curious, however. He did trust Harrow… but seeing magic just once didn’t sound like a bad thing to do.  
Just once, just watching, he promised himself. There was no point in staying curious forever!  
Callum nodded to himself. He wasn’t even disobeying Harrow after all; he hadn’t said he couldn’t look at some magic very closely…  
But Claudia couldn’t show him any magic, and he didn’t want to wake her up. She had looked exhausted earlier, even a little bit less lively than usual. He needed to find someone else.

Callum's mouth went wide with realization. There was someone else in Katolis who knew magic. And the King was always complaining about how he never slept. He certainly wasn’t asleep now, as the sun had barely started to set.  
Callum hurried towards Viren’s quarters and then he snuck into his study. He must have forgotten to lock the door. The child carefully peaked inside the room, left and right. There was no one there, which was good when you were planning to hide somewhere and spy on people.  
And hide he did. He found an old pile of books, roughly as tall as him and much wider. It was perfect!  
He had a plan: he was going to wait there until Viren did some kind of magic, then he was going to sneak out.  
Just asking Viren seemed way too risky, as Harrow would have certainly found him out. Sure, he was following the King’s request to the letter, but his heart wasn’t in it.  
At first, he spent time looking around. He hoped there would be more interesting stuff there, but he just saw shelves full of books, and a small table with a chair, where you could read the books. Claudia's love for reading must have come from her dad. Callum thought that he'd probably like reading, but he'd just started learning how to read, so he wasn't interested in those big books.  
He made up stories in his head to pass the time. He imagined he was a famous bard, singing his stories in all the castles of the five kingdoms. People thanked him with flowers and sugary fruit.  
In fact, it kind of smelled of sugar in there. It would've made him hungry if he hadn't eaten already. Gradually, his stories started featuring more and more sheep and he dozed off without noticing.

Viren finally walked in, waking up Callum with the sound of his staff clacking on the ground. The kid peeked out from his book pile.  
Was it Lord Viren? He must be... he just - didn't really look human. Was it a trick of the moonlight, that made everything less colorful?  
Callum just stared, which he guessed was rude, because you don't stare at someone just because their skin is grey and full of cracks and their hair is white when a few hours earlier it was brown, but what else could he do? He just couldn't take his eyes off the man. What if he wasn't a man at all? What if this was something evil, made to look like Lord Viren? Was he going to die? Panic bubbled up inside him, he felt his breath going faster and faster.  
"Viren"'s pitch black eyes found him. The kid let out a small cry. The man froze.  
"Please don't kill me..." Callum was full on panicking by then.  
"Kill you? I suppose you must think I'm some kind of monster." The kid's first instinct was to nod, but he still couldn't stop shaking enough to move. "I don't want to kill you, little prince,” he said, meaning to sound reassuring.  
The man laid his staff on the ground, his own anxiety bubbling up under the surface. He slowly came towards Callum.  
Viren grabbed him, firmly but gently, as he'd done many times before when he was trying to calm him down, then he sighed. Callum relaxed a bit. It really was Viren then, not some evil entity who just looked like him.  
"Just... don't run away screaming, okay?" Callum didn't do anything. "Being frozen with fear also works," said the Mage. He walked towards a shelf pushing Callum along, then he pressed on a book. The shelf rotated on itself to uncover what looked like a tiny garden full of butterflies. It was beautiful.  
Viren used a butterfly to look human again, which put Callum more at ease. He couldn’t just forget what he’d seen, so he was still a bit scared. 

The man then led him towards a shelf and pulled out a book. Well, not a book, a box painted to look like a big, boring book. He struggled to open it one-handed, causing its contents to fall on the ground.  
A weird fish hit Callum’s foot. He’d never seen anything like it before. Did it just... happen to be there?  
Viren noticed.  
“It’s a seahorse,” he explained. “I keep it here in case this ever happens,” he said while waving his hand as if to point at the whole situation. “It’s always best to be ready for everything. Nosy children breaking into your study included.”  
Callum gulped. He was not going to die, but he was definitely in trouble.  
"Why are you even here? If I have to be honest, I didn’t think I would test out this spell on you first," he asked while he put the leather bag on the table, in front of the weird fish.  
"I wanted to see some magic," Callum answered weakly, still looking at Viren, who had unsealed the leather bag and was sprinkling its content – was it sand? - on the fish.  
"Oh, you'll definitely see some magic up close," Viren said, glaring at him. "We can't have our dear King find out about my little secret. I have a feeling he would not approve.”  
Callum wondered if Harrow would have been as scared as he was in his situation. He probably would have been a little scared. This thought somehow made him feel better.  
The mage’s eyes turned purple and Callum braced himself for whatever was coming.  
“Dlich yson, yad siht tegrof!” he said. Callum felt a warm wind envelop his head. He felt the sand crawl into his mouth and ears and eyes. It wasn’t pleasant, but it didn’t hurt.  
"I'm never showing my children after this," Viren sighed, and that was the last thing Callum heard before falling in a deep slumber. 

Callum was awakened by the sun shining in his eyes. He looked around and was surprised to find himself in his bedroom. Why was he surprised? That’s where he always woke up… was he forgetting something?  
He shook his head to push away his confused feelings.  
“Is everything okay?” the King asked. He was holding a tray of milk and other food.  
Callum nodded. He didn’t know why Harrow was tip-toeing around him all of a sudden.  
“I brought you kids breakfast,” he said with a smile.  
Soon, however, the conversation was hijacked by little Ezran falling asleep face first into his cereals and Callum forgot all about Harrow’s weird behavior.  
He went out of his bedroom, looking for something to do. He’d just stepped down the hallway when he spotted Claudia at a corner of a corridor. He ran towards her, only noticing she was with her father after he’d already said hi to her.  
“Hello,” he said to Viren, too. He felt weird when he looked at him.  
The man just waved at him coldly, then he turned his back from him and walked away.  
Callum shivered. He had a bad feeling about him… one he’d never felt before.


End file.
